May 15, 2013

Donato Zangrossi, Casa delle girandole/The house with the pinwheels

Venice is a city full of art that attracts a lot of tourists. It also once had an art environment that was loved and admired by the locals: the casa delle girandole, the house with the pinwheels.

this picture and the next three by unknown photographer(s)

Life and work

Donato Zangrossi (1905 - 1990) already as a young man liked making drawings and he also was rather interested in reading books, especially about philosophy and astronomy. However, he got a job as a factory worker.

He married and got three children, Tragically his wife died at an early age. Zangrossi remarried and the couple settled in the house of Zangrossi's parents in the Campo Castelforte quarter of Venice.

Probably in the 1960's he began decorating the exterior of this house, first embellishing it with a couple of pinwheels he had constructed himself, then also adding more kinetic art and small colored wooden items.

In the 1980's the exterior had become fully equipped with these self-constructed wooden items and pinwheels.

example of small wooden items in the decoration

After Zangrossi died in 1990 the decorations were no longer cared for.

The next picture, a screenprint from a 1995 video (see documentation), shows the facade as it was some years after its creator had passed away.